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DECISION

On major orientations for socio-economic development of the Western Region of Ho Chi Minh Road till 2020

THE PRIME MINISTER

Pursuant to the December 25, 2001 Law on Organization of the Government;

At the proposal of the Minister of Planning and Investment in Official Letters No. 7874/BKH-CLPT of December 7, 2004, and No. 5835/BKH-CLPT of August 29, 2005; and on the basis of the opinions of concerned ministries, agencies and localities,

DECIDES:

Article 1.- To approve the major orientations for socio-economic development of the western region of Ho Chi Minh Road till 2020 for the entire western territory of Ho Chi Minh Road, the section from Hoa Lac to Binh Phuoc intersection running through 15 provinces: Ha Tay, Hoa Binh, Thanh Hoa, Nghe An, Ha Tinh, Quang Binh, Quang Tri, Thua Thien Hue, Quang Nam, Kon Tum, Gia Lai, Dak Lak, Dak Nong, Binh Phuoc and Binh Duong, with a view to bringing into full play the potentials and advantages in geographical position, natural conditions and natural resources of the region, especially when there is Ho Chi Minh Road, for building the western region into one with economic development, social stability, form defense and border security and a healthy environment, thus contributing to the successful performance of the tasks of socio-economic development and border defense.

Article 2.- Major development targets:

1. The annual average GDP growth rate shall be around 9-10% in the 2006-2010 period; 10-10.5% in the 2011-2020 period. The average per-capita GDP in 2010 shall be 1.7 times over that of 2005, and in 2020 shall be 2.2 times over 2010. By 2010, the region's economic structure with the GDP proportions of various branches shall be as follows: agriculture and forestry, 45%; industry and construction, 20%; services, 35%; and by 2020 the corresponding proportions shall be 30%, 30% and 40%.

2. By 2010, to have reduced the poor household rate to the national average; 50% of primary schools to have reached the national standards, 85-90% of under-5 children to have gone to kindergarten before entering the first grade, 100% of schools and classrooms to have been solidified; to have reduced the rate of malnourished children to 22-25%; 70% of communes to have had health stations, 80-85% of households to have had access to clean water, 60% of villages and hamlets to have had amateur cultural troupes, 85% of villages and hamlets to have had cultural houses, reading rooms, and 50% of communes to have had libraries.

By 2020, to have reduced the poor household rate to below the national average, 70-80% of primary schools to have reached the national standards, 100% of under-5 children to have gone to kindergarten before entering the first grade, 100% of schools and classrooms to have been solidified; the rate of malnourished children to have dropped to 15-20%; 80-85% of communes to have medical doctors and health stations, 90-95% of households to have had access to clean water, 70-75% of villages and hamlets to have had amateur cultural troupes, 90% of villages and hamlets to have reached the standards of cultured villages or hamlets, to have had reading rooms, and 60% of communes to have had libraries.

3. To develop and restore the areas of forests which have been destroyed or exploited at variance with the planned purposes with a view to restoring the landscape and environment for the region.

4. To work out appropriate mechanisms and create conditions for village chiefs and hamlet patriarchs to acquire high political and social consciousness; to actively mobilize ethnic minority children and people to well observe the lines and policies of the Party and the State, make full use of production experience to raise the living standards of their respective families and ethnic communities.

5. To maintain political and security stability and promote socio-cultural development. To firmly uphold the national border sovereignty, combining economic development with defense and security protection.

Article 3.- Tasks and major solutions to boosting the development of key branches and domains

1. To step up the development of commodity production and to restructure the economy in the direction of forming key products and branches, attracting more laborers into the economic sectors of service, industry and commodity-producing agriculture and forestry.

a/ To develop agriculture, forestry and fisheries

To restructure the economy and consumption of farm produce in the direction of intensive farming, specialized farming and creating commodity products.

For areas under specialized agricultural production of commodities, it is necessary to boost intensive farming and vigorous application of scientific and technical advances to agriculture in terms of strains, preservation and processing technologies and to step up agricultural promotion, creating conditions for farmers in the region to efficiently develop advantageous crops and animals of each area. For difficulty-hit areas and border communes, policies should be worked out to support peasants in strains, small irrigation investment, production and business guidance, socio-economic infrastructure development so as to get out of poverty and step by step strive to get rich, protect natural resources and environment.

To diversify agricultural production and develop rural production and business lines. To continue encouraging the development of rural production and business lines in the direction of developing craft villages and diversifying production and business lines.

To select a number of crops such as maize, manioc in service of the processing industry to replace rice in areas which cannot be sufficiently irrigated. To develop short-term and long-term industrial crops suitable to the ecological conditions in each area in the region. To develop fruit trees, particularly temperate and subtropical trees, in areas with favorable conditions. To develop soybean, beans of different kinds in the direction of specialized farming and concentrated production of agricultural commodities.

To develop the rearing of buffaloes, beef and diary cow mainly in families and farms. State enterprises, cooperatives and private economic organizations shall provide services on strains, animal health, agricultural promotion, husbandry product preservation, processing and consumption.

To make full use of existing water surface, particularly hydroelectric and irrigation reservoir surfaces, for aquaculture development. Together with the rearing of native fish species, it is necessary to quickly introduce into aquaculture new strains in order to create products of high value. To further stock fries into reservoirs in order to restore and develop resources in combination of eco-tourism and preservation of gene funds.

To develop forestry is an immediate as well as long-term task in order to raise the tree coverage with a view to protecting the environment, water sources for the eastern coastal delta areas, forming concentrated raw-material zones for paper and artificial plank wood industry, zones of big timber trees and specialty trees.

To well protect, zone off the existing forests for tending and regeneration, including natural forests, protective forests, national gardens, nature conservation zones and forests classified as historical relics.

b/ To develop industry, cottage industry and handicrafts

To develop basic surveys of mineral resources, land, forests, water sources and natural resources of other types.

To step by step build a number of large-scale industrial establishments as a central driving force for boosting economic development in each area, such as metallurgy in Thach Khe; bauxite exploitation and hydroelectric power development in Dak Nong; exploitation of gold, radioactive ores, raw materials for cement production in western Quang Nam; exploitation of gold, kaolin, raw materials for cement production in western Quang Tri, western Thua Thien Hue...

To prioritize the completion of construction and upgrading of agricultural or forest product- processing establishments under planning. The investment in processing establishments must be based on the outlets and capability to develop raw-material zones. To invest in advanced and modern technologies and equipment in order to create products suitable to consumers' tastes and highly competitive in domestic and overseas markets.

To continue studying the investment in hydroelectric-cum-irrigation works; to prioritize investment in small hydroelectric power stations in areas where conditions permit.

To focus on intensive investment in the existing cement plants in the region.

To reorganize the mechanical engineering industry with intensive investment in the renewal of equipment in the existing mechanical engineering establishments. First of all, to raise the mechanical capacity of repairing and manufacturing small products in service of agricultural production and forestry. To restore and develop cottage industries and traditional handicrafts, improve patterns, raise the quality of brocade articles made by ethnic minority people. To restore and develop traditional crafts.

To develop industrial-cottage industrial and handicraft-service clusters. multi-craft complexes in the centers of commune clusters, and district townships. To build industrial clusters of 50-60 ha each under planning.

c/ To develop trade, tourism and services

To bring into full play the advantages in border-gate economy, historical relics and scenic places in order to develop trade, tourism and services, creating motive forces for boosting socio-economic development of the whole region.

To invest in well taping the border-gate economic zones (Cau Treo of Ha Tinh province; Cha Lo, Quang Binh province; Bo Y, Kon Tum province; Duc Co (CK19), Gia Lai province; Bonue, Binh Phuoc province) and Lao Bao special trade zone, Quang Tri province; to form more border-gate economic zones under planning as the core for development of services and tourism and the acceleration of cooperation and border trade in such border gates as Ten Tan, Na Meo of Thanh Hoa province; Nam Can and Thanh Thuy of Nghe An province; Hong Van and A Dot of Thua Thien Huy province; Dak Chung of Quang Nam province; Bu Prang and Dak Per of Dak Nong province.

To develop trade networks in the centers of commune clusters, communes and encourage all economic sectors to participate in two-way circulation of goods. To build market networks. To invest in the construction and upgrading of a number of trade centers and domestic marketplaces.

To bring into play the potentials in natural landscapes, cultural relics and national identity to develop tourism. To form eco-tourist zones with the existing national gardens in the region and a number of other tourist spots. To develop regional tourist spots linking to national tourist routes and spots, particularly the tourist route of Ho Chi Minh Road.

To develop and expand postal and telecommunications services through expanding mobile phone wave coverage and developing Internet access points, post-telecommunications service spots in urban centers, and stop and relaxation points along Ho Chi Minh Road. To prioritize the development of complete post-telecommunication systems in border-gate economic zones, communications lines linking population quarters with border posts along the borderline.

To develop financial, banking, insurance, information, consultancy, agricultural, forestry, industrial promotion services.

2. To build complete infrastructures, particularly inter-zone and borderline communication networks, forming systems of central urban centers of each sub-region in combination with population redistribution.

- Regarding the economic infrastructure system

To connect routes so as to create complete and successive communications networks between provinces, between provinces and districts, between districts and communes. To continue investing in the completion of Ho Chi Minh Road with systems of signboards and other facilities in combination with filling stations.

To deploy the construction of the border corridor road from western Thanh Hoa through western Nghe An, national highway 14C from Ngoc Hoi, Kon Tum province, linking with Road N1 to form a route along Vietnam-Laos-Cambodia borderline.

To upgrade the East-West axial roads linking Ho Chi Minh Road - Highway 1A with important seaports.

To build axial routes from Ho Chi Minh Road to border gates.

To build motor roads leading to commune centers for communes without motor roads; communications lines linking main traffic axes to the centers of communes in the region in order to ensure that 100% of communes or commune clusters have motor roads with asphalt, concrete or macadam surface leading to their centers. To build concrete bridges and underground culverts.

To renovate, upgrade the existing facilities, build new ones with priority given to works helping increase areas under rice, irrigate industrial trees and other crops and supply daily-life water. To continue investment in small reservoirs, key works, as well as canals and small irrigation works in communes meeting with exceptional difficulties.

To continue developing information and communication networks, developing post offices, attaching importance to communes in poor, deep-lying and remote areas, communes facing exceptional difficulties... To efficiently use the optic cable lines along Ho Chi Minh Road and develop cable lines along horizontal sides of H structure in order to develop the telecommunications system.

To continue investment in the development of postal-cultural spots in communes, providing basic postal and telecommunications services to people in deep-lying and remote areas.

To develop radio broadcasting networks to communes, to step by step modernize the television networks, increase the time volumes of broadcasts in ethnic minority languages to better satisfy the demands of regional people.

To build electricity and water supply networks according to plannings and through appropriate steps.

- To develop systems of urban centers, rural population quarters and stop points on Ho Chi Minh Road.

To build the existing urban (district) infrastructures and form a number of new district townships:

For the western regions of Ha Tay and Hoa Binh provinces: To build infrastructures for 13 existing district townships and form three new townships being Cho Ben of Hoa Binh province; Mieu Mon and Hoa Lac of Ha Tay province.

For the western regions of Thanh Hoa, Nghe An and Ha Tinh provinces: To build infrastructures for 24 existing district townships and to form 9 new ones being Khe Ha, Pho Chau, Nga Ba Si, Thuong Ninh, Bai Tranh of Thanh Hoa province; Tri Le, Dong Hieu of Nghe An province; Thanh Thuy and La Khe of Ha Tinh province.

For the western regions of Quang Binh, Quang Tri, Thua Thien Hue and Quang Nam provinces: To build infrastructures for 23 existing district townships and form a number of new ones including Xuan Son and Tan Ap of Quang Binh province; A Co of Thua Thien Hue province....

For the western regions of the provinces from Kon Tum to Binh Phuoc, Binh Duong: To build infrastructures for existing 31 district townships and to form two new ones including Nhon Hoa of Gia Lai province; and Tan Dinh of Binh Duong province.

To attach importance to the formation of concentrated rural population quarters, each having between 300 and 500 households. The rural population quarters shall be closely linked to production establishments and areas, to tourist and trade service spots, specialized farming zones for agricultural production. To organize and redistribute rural population quarters along Ho Chi Minh Road (sections running on the existing national highway), without obstructing the operation of the route.

To plan and redistribute population on the basis of the general planning for socio-economic development of each locality and the traffic planning of Ho Chi Minh Road. For border communes, they must be combined with defense and security in order to form appropriate population clusters, population lines, district townships, commune cluster centers; not to leave border areas unpopulated.

To plan and build stop and relaxation points along Ho Chi Minh Road. These stop and relaxation points shall function to provide services such as sale of gasoline and oil, vehicle repair and washing, food and drink catering, rest, communications, medical emergency treatment, salvage and rescue.

To arrange stop and relaxation points along Ho Chi Minh Road: Cuc Phuong of Ninh Binh province; Xuan Quy district township (Ben En) of Thanh Hoa province; Tan Ky of Nghe An province; Pho Chau of Ha Tinh; Xuan Son of Quang Binh province; Cam Lo of Quang Tri province; A Luoi of Thua Thien Hue province; Khe Sanh of Quang Tri province; Thanh My, Quang Nam province; Dak To of Kon Tum province; Nhon Hoa, Gia Lai province; Buon Ho, Dak Lak province; Kien Duc of Kak R'Lap district, Dak Nong province; Duc Phong of Binh Phuoc province; Chon Thanh of Binh Duong province.

3. To develop education and training, culture, social affairs, to eradicate hunger and reduce poverty, to well implement Party and State policies on ethnic and religious affairs.

- To develop education and training

To raise the comprehensive quality of general education, step by step approaching the national standards. To increase the rate of eligible school-goers. To continue investment in construction of adequate solid classrooms for all educational levels. By 2020, 70-80% of primary schools to have reached the national standards.

To formulate special policies towards educational workers in difficulty-hit areas such as perfection of the salary and allowance systems for teachers, training priority and other preferential regimes. To encourage through different measures the increase of the rate of female teachers of ethnic minority.

To create conditions for ethnic minorities to study and firmly grasp the official language and their respective ethnic minority languages. To attach importance to the training of officials for communes facing extreme difficulties and to the addressed training. To give the trainee-nomination and

-selection norms to localities meeting with exceptional difficulties.

To develop the system of vocational training establishments of primary, intermediate and collegial levels, continuity between vocational training levels and continuity with other training systems; to diversify forms of vocational training so as to supply skilled labor for various economic branches while effecting the vocational universalization for laborers.

To work out specific solutions to eradication of illiteracy for ethnic minority people and measures to combat superstitious practices and backward customs in the region. Together with providing school fees or scholarships to general education pupils in ethnic minority areas, to open anti-illiteracy classes in villages, hamlets and population quarters, where those who know more will teach those who know less and those who know less will teach illiterate persons. To expand the form of semi-boarding classes where learners are fed by people by issuing regulations on reasonable contributions by the entire population. To raise awareness and scientific knowledge for ethnic minority people through activities of community-based education and distance education.

- On healthcare

To invest material foundations and equipment for medical establishments. To strive to achieve by 2010 the following targets: 100% of health stations shall have medical doctors, with an average of 3.05 doctors and 17 hospital beds per 10,000 people.

To step up the application of traditional medicine and pharmacy to public healthcare. To encourage the development and use of prescriptions of Vietnamese medicinal herbs, medicinal herbs used by ethnic minority people in order to reduce expen-ditures on medical examination and treatment for the poor. To continue stepping up the incorporation of national target programs on healthcare with hunger eradication and poverty reduction.

- On culture and social affairs

To intensify the investment of equipment in cultural institutions so as to be capable of servicing cultural activities in villages, hamlets, communes and districts.

To preserve, improve and bring into full play the value of tangible and intangible cultures of ethnic minority people in the region, to strengthen grassroots cultural institutions in villages or hamlets through the implementation of the Regulation on democracy.

To build public-addressing stations for communes and commune clusters. To modernize equipment and increase the time volume for broadcasting programs in ethnic minority languages at districts and provinces.

- Hunger eradication and poverty reduction: To strive to reduce the poor household rate to the national average by 2010. To fruitfully implement and integrate national programs on poverty reduction, programs on socio-economic development in communes facing exceptional difficulties in ethnic minority, deep-lying, remote areas in the 2006-2010 period with other national target programs in the region.

- To well implement Party and State policies on ethnic and religious work. To continue implementing the policies on production land, residential land, housing support; policies on freight and/or price subsidies; policies on sedentarization and settlement of free migrants, policies on education, healthcare, information for ethnic minority people.

To well perform the Front's work, support the building of a contingent of adherents to act as the core in the protection of religious practices and maintenance of the tradition of patriotism and attachment to the Party and the regime. To continue struggling against hostile forces that abuse religion to destroy our revolutionary gains.

To adopt policies to support dioceses in education and training, building of a contingent of religious dignitaries, in organizing congresses according to terms and conducting external activities in conformity with the religious line, linking with the interests of the nation and the Fatherland and going in company with the State and the nation.

- To attach importance to building a contingent of key officials in socio-political organizations in villages and hamlets. To work out policies and plans on training and employment of state officials and employees, first of all ethnic minority officials; to formulate policies of encouraging officials to work in localities. To raise the quality of officials of Kinh ethnic majority in areas inhabited by ethnic minority people, adopting mechanisms to encourage them to study ethnic minority languages, understand and attach themselves to ethnic minority people.

- To step up the struggle against negative phenomena in the administration apparatus, the grassroots political system, to firmly uphold disciplines in the state management, building an administration really of the people, by the people and for the people and a contingent of officials who attach themselves to people, understand people and have the capability to well handle the work of the administration in service of people.

- To attach importance to, and work out specific solutions to, drug prevention and combat and the fight against smuggling and trade frauds.

4. Socio-economic development in association with environmental protection

To formulate schemes on management and protection of such national gardens and nature conservation zones as Cuc Phuong in Ninh Binh province; Phong Nha-Ke Bang in Quang Binh province; Bach Ma in Thua Thien Hue province; Yokdon in Dak Lak province.

To incorporate environmental protection contents into the general planning on socio-economic development, branch planning, local planning and to coordinate actions to ensure the sustainable development.

To raise the capability to manage forestry and protect natural resources and environment for forestry management forces, agencies performing the state management over natural resources and environment in localities.

5. To build firm and strong borderlines on the basis of economic development in the border region in combination with population arrangement, cooperation with Laos and Cambodia in the development process.

To step up economic development and economic restructuring, focusing on restructuring of crops and husbandry along the direction of commodity production.

To step by step invest in the construction of border corridor roads and border patrol roads. To formulate and realize specific plans on border posts along the borderlines in the direction of increasing the number of border posts.

To actively coordinate and cooperate with Laos and Cambodia in economic development in the border regions; in the project on planning for triangle development of the three countries of Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia with a view to materializing the Vientiane Declaration of the three Prime Ministers of Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia.

6. To combine economy with defense in order to intensify defense consolidation and security stability.

To continue developing a model of economic-defense zones in areas where conditions permit. To consolidate and additionally develop units conducting economic activities in combination with defense in thinly populated areas.

To further implement the general planning on defense disposition in combination with socio-economic development in accordance with the provisions of the Prime Minister's Decision No. 107/2002/QD-TTg of August 12, 2002.

7. Development mechanisms and policies

To formulate coordinative mechanisms and preferential policies such as investment and credit policies, policies on rural markets, product consumption, policies on cultural and social domains, security and defense, policies on cooperation and support between rich and poor areas; to further the cooperation and assistance in the direction that each ministry and branch, each state enterprise, each Service and branch in every province shall assist one difficulty-hit commune in the western region of Ho Chi Minh Road in order to create a favorable environment for investment attraction and regional socio-economic development.

Article 4.-

1. Ministries, ministerial-level agencies, Government-attached agencies and the People's Committees of the provinces in the western region of Ho Chi Minh Road shall have to strictly inspect, monitor and implement the major orientations for socio-economic development of the western region of Ho Chi Minh road, draw up five-year and annual plans, appropriate programs and projects on development investment.

2. Ministries and branches shall revise programs and projects on socio-economic development in combination with security and defense, ensuring coordination, efficiency and set schedule; continue directing according to their respective functions investment in economic, cultural and social development; give priority to border areas.

3. The Ministry of Planning and Investment shall assume the prime responsibility for, and coordinate with the Finance Ministry and relevant localities in, studying necessary preferential mechanisms and policies in the direction of integrating the existing programs to organize the realization of orientations for socio-economic development in the western region of Ho Chi Minh Road, particularly the borderlines.

4. The provinces in the western region of Ho Chi Minh Road shall revise, adjust their existing plannings and formulate new plannings on development of the western region of their respective provinces, and at the same time draw up specific action programs for realization of the schemes in the provinces.

Article 5.- This Decision takes effect 15 days after its publication in "CONG BAO."

Article 6.- The presidents of the People's Committees of the provinces specified in Article 1 and ministers, heads of relevant ministerial-level agencies, and heads of relevant Government-attached agencies shall have to implement this Decision